Three Majority-Latino Kansas Counties Go Blue for First Time in Decades

Three majority-Latino counties in southwest Kansas have gone blue for the first time in decades, according to a report from NPR. In American election coverage, blue is the color used for the Democratic Party.

Majority-Latino means that most residents of a county are of Latino heritage. Those three counties, in the southwest corner of the state, had not voted blue in a long stretch of past elections.

NPR published the report on November 13, 2026. Calen Moore reported the story for the program All Things Considered. It looks at the role Latino voters played in the shift.

Voters and activists say immigration enforcement was a big factor in the change. Immigration enforcement refers to government efforts to apply the country's immigration laws, including efforts to find and remove people who are in the country illegally.

According to the NPR report, the voters and activists who spoke about the issue tied the shift in the three counties to those enforcement efforts.